Apprentices of the Forest Learning and Teaching to Protect 2013 Annual Report Letter from the President In all of its activities, ACT seeks partners who the old sciences have much to teach the new share this belief. When assessing partnerships sciences about adaptation—in effect, we with indigenous groups, ACT favors those should all be apprentices. communities with the greatest commitment to learning how to adapt and thrive under As the conservation story continues to evolve, rapidly changing ecological, social, and political ACT’s flexible, ambitious, and unwavering contexts. These kind of people possess the commitment to learning and traditional necessary drive to protect their traditional knowledge will ensure that we remain a territory and knowledge, as well as to transmit cutting-edge and resilient organization at the this capacity to future generations and forefront of the battle. neighboring groups. Since its inception, ACT has relied upon the bridging and blending of modern and ancient ways of knowing to forge the most effective solutions in biocultural conservation. In this effort, equally useful information and lessons can be obtained from scientific publications, Mark J. Plotkin, Ph.D., L.H.D. novel technologies, or fireside chats with tribal President and Cofounder In 2013, scientists made a remarkable discovery chieftains. In the example of the olinguito in the cloud forests of Ecuador and Colombia: discovery mentioned previously, the carnivore the first new carnivorous mammalian species would likely have been recognized as unique identified in the Americas in 35 years. years earlier if researchers had consulted more Amazingly, one specimen of this fluffy relative closely with local indigenous groups. of the raccoon—the olinguito—toured zoos across the United States in the 1960s while Education is at the heart of each of ACT’s mistaken for a related species. programs, from our ethno-education initiative (see page 5) in the northwest Amazon to the The story highlights an important lesson: As Shamans and Apprentices Program in the conservationists, we’ve got a lot to learn. For northeast Amazon. In particular, we value better or often for worse, we continue to be collaboration and synergy between Western surprised by unexpected events and changing and traditional education systems. conditions. There is no quaintness in this: advanced Around the world, scientists, activists, environmental and agricultural science indigenous communities, and others are students in modern universities clamor to learn struggling to protect the last intact forest precisely that which has long been passed ecosystems and the traditional knowledge of down by the knowledge-keepers of traditional their original inhabitants. To address these societies. As we cope with the growing effects challenges and remain at the forefront of this “I am still learning.” of climate change, increases in deforestation, fight, education and lifelong learning must be a and the continued degradation of our oceans, – Michelangelo, at age 87 priority. 1 12 The mission of the Amazon Conservation Team is to partner with indigenous people to protect the rainforest. Small but robust, we occupy a unique niche among international environmental nonprofits working in the tropics: ACT works hand-in-hand with local indigenous communities to devise and implement conservation strategies. Among our Core Values: A Commitment to the Integration of Modern and Traditional Knowledge * ACT believes that the knowledge and practices of indigenous and other forest communities are important and useful for natural resource conservation. Moreover, we believe that combining traditional knowledge with modern science and technologies creates the local conditions for optimal long-term environmental solutions and positions those communities to be ideal stewards. Traditional healer Mama Margarita of Colombia’s Kamentsa people guides apprentice Charito in medicinal plant collection * ACT considers the role of traditional healer within Amazonian indigenous communities as essential, and deeply esteems the knowledge systems that have been handed down to successive generations of healers. Additionally, we believe that their knowledge is enriching to western healthcare systems. ACT’s Cross-Cutting Goals: * Promote the protection and conservation * Create the conditions to preserve, transfer, of tropical forests, with an emphasis on and strengthen traditional medicinal “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. indigenous lands and their borderlands. knowledge and promote community Learn as if you were to live forever.” health * Promote the environmentally and – Mahatma Gandhi socioeconomically sustainable * Promote optimal conditions for the management of tropical forests, with an recognition and safe and equitable use of emphasis on indigenous lands and their traditional health systems borderlands. * Strengthen indigenous communities’ * Strengthen and preserve traditional capacity to promote and advocate for their culture rights 3 34 Youth Education To ensure that indigenous youth will thrive in both their traditional contexts and the world at large, ACT promotes a unique teaching approach called ethno-education, where students are taught ancestral subject matter—such as subsistence agriculture, native language, and traditional healing practices—alongside standard modern curricular elements such as math and science. * ACT worked with a team of ACT-trained * park guards to create Junior Park Ranger * manuals. These booklets teach children * about local flora and fauna, as well as basic * principles of conservation. They are in high * demand in four indigenous communities in Suriname. * ACT continued to fund the ethno- education schools it established in three remote indigenous villages in Suriname. A shaman’s apprentice demonstrates medicinal uses of local flora * In collaboration with the NGO PCOS, ACT to Kwamalasamutu village students in Suriname provided 15 Trio and Wayana indigenous youth from Suriname’s rainforest interior with the financial assistance and * With ACT’s guidance, the Yachaikury networking support necessary to pursue Ethno-education School of the Inga people Indigenous graduates of Colombia’s Yachaikury School are prepared for both higher education and sustainable stewardship of their communities higher education in the country’s capital. became the first private indigenous school in Colombia to be transformed * ACT provided educational materials on into a public school. This change ensures Trio indigenous culture to Suriname’s Yachaikury’s sustainability without National Environmental Education Kit sacrificing its autonomy. Further, ACT and project, slated for distribution to the the Juligon Architectural Foundation have children of 360 primary schools across the worked closely with Yachaikury students country. The materials help young people and faculty in the planning and design of “The education model we have applied at Yachaikury is a product of the understand the connection between renovated buildings and grounds. collective work of many communities. We find our inspiration in training boys indigenous land stewardship and the nation’s near-pristine forests. * In Colombia, ACT trained the indigenous and girls to embrace strong cultural values and a loving friendship with the organization of the Inga people of earth. Of the 900 students that have come through Yachaikury’s doors, some * In Colombia, ACT guided the Kamentsa Caquetá in accounting software and Bilingual School of the Sibundoy Valley in annual budgeting. As a result, association have returned to teach at the school or now hold important leadership positions a redesign of their school curriculum to members have the skills to oversee the in their communities.“ better incorporate traditional knowledge, replication of the Yachaikury School model and will collaborate with the regional to a network of 12 Inga schools, a role - Wairanina Jacanamijoy Mutumbajoy indigenous organization OZIP to replicate formalized by the Caquetá Secretary of this initiative in the department of Education. Longtime Leader of the Ingano people Putumayo. 1 5 36 Guiding and Advising Communities ACT works closely, inclusively, and respectfully with local communities over the long term to ensure the lasting protection of biodiversity and traditional cultures in the rainforest. * ACT enabled the Caquetá Departmental * ACT and its NGO partner, SynBio Brasil, Indigenous Council (CODIC) to receive provided guidance and an irrigation substantial funding from the Colombian system for a sustainable traditional National Royalties Fund by guiding agriculture initiative of the Waurá people them through the application process of the Ulupuene village in the Xingu and advising them in their ongoing Indigenous Reserve, Brazil. ACT also Ceremonial structures constructed through ACT support at Jaba Kogi youth welcome ACT and other supporters to the grounds of communications with national agencies. supported the village’s work to maintain Tañiwashkaka, a Kogi sacred site in the La Guajira department, their newly acquired sacred site Colombia The funding, the first of its kind, was healthy fisheries and clean the Batovi River used for a project to strengthen eight and its tributaries. indigenous groups’ administrative capacity. * ACT assisted seed jewelry craftswomen in Kwamalasamutu, Suriname, to create new * Through a partnership with ACT and the hybrid designs more attractive to urban Colombian government, the Kogi people Surinamers and tourists. of the Sierra